We did it... And I'll do it again

My weekend is over and another Monday starts tomorrow. Mondays are such great days to start new with everything that I am working on in my life. Working out harder, eating better, reading scriptures more, praying more, being more patient with my kids, cooking more, cleaning more, spending more time with my kids, waking up early, and the list goes on and on.

I feel like every Monday I start over and hope that maybe this week I will master one or all of these skills. Yet every Monday that comes along I'm still in the same place I was trying to do more and better.

That is what this life is all about though isn't it? Trying to be better and wiser and kinder? Put off the worldly things and become closer to our Savior Jesus Christ? That is what I am really striving for each Monday and each day for that matter.

So tomorrow is just another Monday. I will eat better, I will work out harder, I will cook dinner, I will clean, I will do laundry, I will read to my kids, I will study more scriptures, I will pray more, I will be kinder to everybody around me, I will smile more, I will spend less money, I will worry less what others think of me and worry more about What the Savior thinks. Tomorrow I will be a better person than I was today.

Although I feel pretty good about the person I have been the last few days being a mother to eight children. I love my nieces and nephews to death and it was so fun to have them come and stay with us for four days. It indeed made me realize that I am very much fine with the three children that I have of my own. But we had a lot of fun and got a lot of things done. I am tired and I need a good pedicure!

Let it begin

The madness that is!! Good thing I love my nieces and nephews a lot because for the next few days we will be living a live circus! 8 kids and me and Brian. We are babysitting and I'm excited for some fun crazy times. Starting with tonight the quadruplets.
The worst part is that they can't sleep in the same room as my kids cause my kids would keep them up all night long. Why do mine have to be nuts!
All the time.

To prep for this week I have been working out hard. Ok it's not to prep for the kids and stress, it was to prep for the stress eating that will probably happen. Haha I have been soon nike training camp followed by the spin class. 2 hours of intense training. I am so pooped and so sore too! Places I never knew I could be sore and had no idea I was working! It's a new workout every time so it is really fun and goes fast. It is hard work!!

Sweet moment

Natalie has been working very hard on being happy all the time. She tends to be very grumpy when she doesn't get her way or when she wakes up early or when she wakes up late or when she's eating, pretty much all the time... Unless she is eating candy that she wanted as a reward or won a contest then she is happy. Haha But she only has about six more days of being happy every morning and she earns herself a scooter.

I do get so happy when I look in the backseat and see my kids doing kind things to each other. After Boots's baseball game on Saturday I looked behind and he was letting Natalie rest her tired head on his shoulder. Usually touching is not allowed because of how it ends, but on Saturday it was so sweet and they did it for quite a while.

So we had baseball pictures on Saturday and I decided to not buy any this year. Brian does not like it when I spend money on pictures for a sport. I understand because he's doing two different things a year and it starts to add up. Instead I stood behind the photographer and took a group shot, I think it looks pretty good I don't need to pay $15 to have this printed for me thank you very much.

Also too... I cut my hair. Loving it!

Product review

West elm stainless steel top table...
It's awesome. I went back and forth about a kitchen table for our home for a while. I wanted it big enough so that it seats 8, and durable since my kids are nuts.

I really wanted a rustic wooden table that looked pieces together, but as I thought about play dough and macaroni, all I could think of was the little cracks and crevices that things would get stuck in.

So enter the stainless steel top. It's so durable and can be scratched up with forks or smashed with food or colored on or play Doughed on. No matter what just happened it is easy to wipe up and the scratches actual make it look better!

I am so happy with what this table brigs to our home and I know it will be well used and well loved.

Also, I got the clear chairs from ikea which are the easiest things to wipe and clean and they smoosh around the table perfectly! I have 6 chairs now, but they easily fit 8 when we have guests.

Bluebonnets

Tonight I am so grateful for these 3 goof balls. They might be nicknamed sassy pants, monkey face, and silly goose... But they are the best kids ever.

Natalie sassed me bad before school and then several times after school today. We have a chart that is up and she gets to put a smiley face every morning that she is happy getting ready for school. If she is sassy and grumpy she gets a frowny face. If she can do this for three weeks of happy faces straight she earns herself a big girl razor scooter. She really wanted one, until she broke her arm. Now she doesn't really care, she just wants her cast off. Which has resulted in grumpy mornings again.

Today boots broke a bookshelf off of the wall now I have three giant holes to fill. He is crazy and blames everything on somebody else. So and so was doing it, so I did too. What he doesn't understand yet is that he can control himself other people do not control him. The kicker is that he's just so sweet and tender hearted. It's hard for me to get mad and tell him no!

Courtney pooped her pants twice today. It was just a little, the rest was in the potty but man is that girl stubborn. It HAS to be her idea so it's all about phrasing it the right way to get her to do it. "It" being anything. Eating, walking, bathroom, helping, anything. She talks about a mile a minute and all I want to do it listen to her, until she repeats herself about 37 times too many... You have to respond. But it all makes it lovely when she busts out "brightly beams" or "I am a child of god".

There you have it sassy pants, monkey face, and silly goose playing up in those bluebonnets! I hope the weather gets a little nicer and we can go back up and take some real pictures not in mud and freezing.

Peaceful

My house is peaceful tonight. The kids are all in bed fast asleep. I have finished my school work for the night and now I have had some time to my own thoughts to sit and be silent. I have been thinking a lot about peace recently as sometimes it is hard to find in my life. I know that there are the everyday tasks and things that happen. The house is loud, TV is on, music is on, kids are fighting, I am filled with thoughts of what to make for dinner tomorrow, finance problems and ways to solve them, counting my calories, solving my children's  problems, cleaning my house... the list goes on and on. These are all distractions. They distract me from being able to feel at peace.

A few months ago I posted about going to see a therapist about my anxiety. It helped me so much to have help and I felt as though I had found peace. It wasn't until a few weeks ago when we had a chance to go to the temple as a family. Without going into too much detail I will share that I felt at peace while I was there. It was a different peace than I think I have ever felt in my life. I was overcome with the knowledge that my Father in Heaven loves me so much and that everything will be OK. I realized at that moment that I have not felt at peace in years. I was so sad that I hadn't felt this way in years. I didn't want to leave this feeling behind.
Since then, I have been trying to keep the feeling alive in my life. It is hard to do as there are so many distractions.

I sit here tonight and think about the bombings that just happened in Boston today. I was overcome with sadness. I was saddened for the families who had lost, but also sad for the people who did this awful act. In the last few years there have been horrible things that have happened to many many innocent people, and it is becoming more and more apparent that we are living in such an evil world. Evil is all around us attacking us from every side. We may not have been in a shooting or in a bombing, but we are bombarded daily with our own trials, some big and some small, that keep us from feeling that peaceful feeling.

There may not be world peace, but I know that I have to keep myself and my home at peace. I will do everything that I can to keep that peaceful feeling around me and those that I love. I will stop allowing the things of the world to creep in and fill my home with smoke. I have a tendency to be lazy and allow my tired self to take over all too much, I know that I can control this and take over. I know that personal scripture study and personal prayer, along with family prayer and scripture study have brought large amounts of peace in my life and my families.

There are always going to be things going on around me, near and far, that bring sadness and fear, but My Savior can help me to keep the peaceful feelings close to me. It takes effort, but it is an effort that is worth every second of the fight. The peace that I felt that day at the temple was one that I don't want to lose. I want that to be a feeling that I can experience daily, and any time I want. I know that I have access to it.

I just listened again to Elder Cooks talk from this last conference "Personal Peace." and he helped me to feel reassured of all of these feelings. At the end he quoted Eliza R Snow:

Lift up your hearts in praise to God;

Let your rejoicings never cease.

Though tribulations rage abroad,

Christ says, “In me ye shall have peace.”

See? This is how I love to end my nights. At peace. I am peaceful tonight.

This happened

Natalie is really tough and my kids seem to be invisible.

I always thought boots who is my wild and crazy child, would be the first to break a bone... Today I got a phone call from Natalie's school hat she had fallen off the playground (slide) and landed on her arm. They wanted me to pick her up and check it out at the dr.

Luckily for us, Sean is close who is an orthopedic surgeon and be was a me to look at her, look at X-rays, and then cast her. He's the best.

We think it is something with growth plates so have to be really cautious and careful. She is brave and strong and only cried a little. I think the ER dr was hitting on me just a little too, so I was outa there fast!

Pink cast seemed to make of fun and interesting, until she realized She can't use her right arm... And it all if a sudden is an itch face! Hope she sleeps well toight. Poor sweet Girl.

"Hi mum"

This raspy little voice is the sweetest I've ever heard. Courtney talks non stop and is always making us laugh. She loves to say prayers and she has to be one of the most stubborn kids I know. Everything must be done "my own self", and it can't be my idea... Always hers. She hates holding my hand and loves to tease boots the most. He hates it all day.
She LoVES to sing, especially church songs, but Taylor swift or Justin beiber will do in a pinch. She's growing like a weed and although she's only 2.5 she wears 3/4 sized everything. She is now potty trained, which is such a beat down with little accidents here and there. And the worst Is that she likes to try and clean her little potty all by Herself everytime, leaving a huge mess everytime! She loves playing on the iPad, or my phone and loves to get her hair done- strange. She makes us laugh all the time with her facial expressions and questions. She loves to "love" babies and especially Nina. She is the worst snuggler ever and just giggles and tosses and turns the whole time. She doesn't know how to whisper so it's always loud. When she tells secrets, she puts her ear on your ear and just moves her lips. She sticks her fingers And toes through the holes in her blanket and sucks on it till it is soaking. She loves her baby dolls, and a good play cell phone that makes noise. Stop being so cute and growing up.
She is the best last child and the sweetest baby to our family. I love her so much!!

Day after day

Having family in town for Easter and their spring break is so much fun. But it's bad for business... I have put a hold on real life, not near enough gym time, way too much bad food, no studying, and dropping of just way too much.

Well everyone is gone by tomorrow and I am ready to get back to real life. I will be back to all of the above listed items that I have been slacking on and I'm super excited for it. I love a good break but it is hard when I'm still home having a staycation.

Bowling, laser tag, gravity courses, food food food, sun burns, swimming, date night, sleep overs, jump street, pedicures, baseball games, skipping school, Disney on Ice, and nothing tops off a great week like general conference. An entire weekend of edification from our modern day prophets. I have much to study and change in my family and personal life. It is one of the 2 best weekends of the year.

He's missing

Other than our morning Easter egg hunt with just our kids, boots was missing from all pictures yesterday. His primary teacher had a hard day yesterday and I felt horrible. Boots kicked her and ran from her and did all sorts of things in class. It makes me so sad because he is just not like that. He is sweet and good and caring and good!! So were trying to figure out what is going on and fix it. Needless to say he was not allowed to participate in the Easter egg hunt later on that evening. From the other room this is what he said " they sound like they sure are having a lot of fun out here! " followed by some tears on and of. Sorry buddy.

Well happy Easter!! We had a wonderful busy weekend with family, friends, and of course my lord and savior Jesus Christ. Friday all our family came into town, saturday was rawlins easter hunt, i went to canton, and then birthday parties for friends and bri turned 12!! nor sure how that happened so fast!
We woke up Sunday morning and watched the lamb of god with the kids and talked a lot of the death and resurrection of Christ. Then after church we played with all the family that's in town. Mom, dad, brian and robin and kids, and Bonnie and Tom and family. It was a delicious dinner and so much fun!